Everybody's Changing
by SilverSeas
Summary: Takes place during chapter 254, which means spoilers from that chapter! Things weren't as they should have been... EDITED  fixed a name. Realized that I got it wrong a second after publishing it the first time. xD


**Author's Note (Please don't feel like you have to read this part):**

Hi there! So, this is my first Fairy Tail story. The first one that I'm publishing, at least; I have another one that was intended to be a one-shot but is currently over 11,000 words... so I need to figure out how to set that up and all. I'll probably use it for my NaNoWriMo. But stay tuned for that story; I rather like how it's coming along at the moment.

Anyways, I wrote this the day that chapter 254, came out. I read this chapter a few times, and the first time I read it, I completely didn't realize the Bisca and Alzack were _married_, but I noticed it the second time I read through it; I was all like, "OMG, THEY HAVE THE SAME LAST NAME!" So yeah, I was pretty excited there, which is weird because I don't heavily ship those two really... Anyway, then I started thinking, "Wait a minute, they must have been missing so many people from their wedding!" and so that's how this story developed.

Enough of my rambling, I do so apologize; please read!

I don't own Fairy Tail or its characters or any of that stuff.

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><p><strong><span>Everybody's Changing<span>**

They would never be the same.

Never. The man knew that seven years had passed; he knew that he and the rest of his remaining guild mates had finally accepted the event as truth, but he couldn't accept that _this_ was how they would now be forevermore. Broken.

Those who had never drank before now drunk the same way _she_ once had. Maybe some of the mages had surpassed _her_, though if _she_ were around, _she'd_ work hard to disprove this theory.

Jet and Droy were shattered after their girl had vanished. The little woman had ended up being the only thing to keep those two idiots sane and functioning; without _her_, they bickered almost as much as two deceased mages once had. Though _those __guys_ had been polar opposites, both in temperature and in personality, _they_ truly had been the closest of friends that anyone in the guild could remember, and it hurt them all that they would never see such a strong, complex friendship ever again.

And it didn't help that young, strong Romeo reminded the man so much of one of his passed on friends. Just the way the boy dressed was enough to make Alzack believe that he _was_ _Natsu_. But what else could have been expected, really? The youngster had admired Natsu with all of his heart; Macao's son had never wanted anything other than to grow up to be just like the fire dragon-slayer.

Alzack sighed as he stared at Romeo staring out to sea. He was always doing that - gazing at what was once Tenroujima - as though simply willing the island to rise out of the water was enough to bring the normality back to Fairy Tail.

The gunslinger felt a presence on his arm. He glanced over and smiled at his wife as the lady's green hair brushed against his shoulder. His _wife_; it still felt so nice to finally say that. Of all of the things that had happened since the guild's home island had disappeared, Alzack was thankful solely for the love that had at long last surfaced between Bisca and himself. After the pair had found out about what happened to more than half of their guild members, they had decided that it was time to admit the truth to one another. They could have easily been on that island - Alzack had been the very next candidate for that year's S-Class ranking! What would they have done? They would have di- they would have followed in their friends' footsteps had they been there and would have never opened their hearts. The two had mutually agreed that nothing should ever be held back from that point forward; life is simply too short for keeping secrets.

So they had gotten married, and Alzack could only wish that he could call that day the happiest of his life, but he simply _couldn't_. And Bisca knew, and she understood... and she agreed. Their wedding _should __have_ been the best day of their lives, but it just _wasn't_. Not everyone was there - like they should have been. And not everyone was celebratory - like they _would_ have been had everyone been there.

Max had been Alzack's best man - truly, the sand mage would not have been the gun wielder's first choice - and he hadn't smiled once during the entire white ceremony. The best man had opted to grow his scruffy, unkempt beard and had also carried with him the slight stench of liquor before the reception had even commenced. Alzack had wanted the _best __man_ he could find to be his best man at his wedding, but since the incident, Max had drifted far, far away from any such title.

Laki had been Bisca's maid of honor, and truthfully, the woman had never looked more like a slut. Alzack remembers when she had been such a sweet, kind girl - that was no longer. The deaths of their comrades had fallen hard on the spectacled magician; some believe that she just snapped, no real reason backing her up. Why a slut and not a drunken mess like the remaining guild mates, no one knows.

But Bisca and Alzack's wedding had not been damp despite all of those depressed souls attending the occasion. Every invitee had found the courage within his/herself to congratulate the lifelong lovers and most had even managed to smile. The dancing had been nice, the cake good, and the honeymoon all that any newlywed could ever want - there had simply been a heavy absence weighing down on all of the party-goers. Where was the showdown between Gray and Natsu? Where was Erza sitting down daintily for a chance and enjoying every scrumptious mouthful of that fruity, wedding cake? Where was Lucy gushing over the storybook love that Bisca and Alzack shared and where was Juvia mumbling quietly to herself, imaging her ideal wedding to a certain ice mage?

In short, the wedding simply hadn't risen up to it's potential standards.

There had been the tossing of the bouquet - but everyone had expected Bisca to toss the flowers behind her head dramatically and for all of the ladies of Fairy Tail to claw at each other tooth and nail to snatch the dainty frills out of thin air. It should have been Evergreen to emerge victorious from such a battle and Mirajane to faint immediately as a consequence, having too much joy within her at the prospect of her own little brother soon being hitched.

Instead, Laki had calmly stood behind Bisca as the green haired woman simply tossed the carnations before her. The maid of honor yawned in a bored way as she watched the plants flop heavily and none too gracefully to the floor.

And that night, Natsu and Lisanna should have admitted their own love to their childhood sweethearts; Juvia should have emerged from her stalking shadows and discovered that her feelings were reciprocated. Lucy and Erza should have binged to the extent of out-shining Cana in her specialty while the card mage, herself, should have shared a long-awaited confession to her father.

None of that happened, and the event felt empty.

Alzack actually wishes that they could all go back to the time frame where all of the Fairy Tail wizards were fighting in the Battle of Fairy Tail, because at least then they were all together - though not in spirit - at least then they were all _alive_. Though they had all been fighting in combat, they had all still loved each other, and could still express those feelings of love without talking to ghosts.

The dark haired man felt his wife shift on his arm and was transported back to the present-day world. "Doesn't he look like Natsu?" the green-haired woman asked, indicating to the lone boy staring out to sea.

Alzack clenched his fist opposite the arm that Bisca was clinging to; it still burned to hear one of his deceased comrade's names. He could only nod in response, as he too forcibly gazed at the blue waters miles away.

Bisca's grasp on her husband's arm tightened, "Everybody's changing," she quietly stated, a regretful tone to her voice. "Promise me you'll stay the same."

Alzack silently wrapped his arm around Bisca's shoulders, "I've already changed."

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><p>Thoughts? Please tell me what you think! I feel like the ending is a bit abrupt... but I dunno. xD<p>

EDIT: I fixed Laki's name (I originally said it was Rika... whoops!) And I know that Bisca and Alzack's wedding would be _much_ more lively and cheerful than it is depicted here, but it is a fanfiction, so accuracy is not _truly_ necessary, neh?


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